


Yield

by izayoi_no_mikoto



Category: Kyou Kara Maou!
Genre: Angst, M/M, Nonnies Made Me Do It, One-Sided Attraction, Pining, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2019-01-05 08:54:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12186879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izayoi_no_mikoto/pseuds/izayoi_no_mikoto
Summary: I don't know what I would do without you, Yuuri, Conrad thinks, but never in a thousand years would he dare speak those words aloud.





	Yield

Conrad's timing is, as always, impeccable.

There's an ideal timing for these interruptions:  Late enough that Yuuri has gotten a significant chunk of work done, but not so late that he has to suffer through extended Gunter dramatics on top of the tedious paperwork.  When Yuuri is set to a desk in some closed-off, stuffy room somewhere, Conrad finds a way to keep himself busy in the general vicinity, and when he hears Gunter's voice rising, that's his cue to fetch a couple of gloves and mount a rescue.

"Thanks for getting me out of there.  I swear I was going to die of boredom," Yuuri says fervently.  He throws the baseball, and it hits Conrad's glove with a satisfying smack.  "I don’t know what I'd do without you, Conrad."

_I don't know what I would do without you, Yuuri_ , Conrad thinks.  But he's had too many years to learn to control his tongue, his facial expression, his entire being, and so he only throws the ball back and smiles, warm but mask-thin.  "I think you would manage just fine without me, Your Majesty."

"Ahhh!"  Yuuri points an accusatory finger.  "There you go again, calling me that!  I thought I told you to call me by my name!  The name _you_ gave me, by the way, _Godfather_!"

Conrad wouldn't ever say it aloud, not in a thousand years, but the truth is that he hates it when Yuuri calls him that.  He doesn't resent or regret the role he played in Yuuri's early life–-how could he, when the result is that Yuuri stands here before him now?-–but it happened long in the past, and he wants it to remain there.  There are a thousand and one things he would rather be to Yuuri than _godfather_.

Yuuri doesn't think of it that way.  Yuuri says it mostly as a joke, nothing serious, just a tool to gently needle Conrad into addressing him the way he wants:   _If you call me by my title_ , he seems to say, _then I'll call you by yours_.  But Yuuri doesn't understand why Conrad addresses him as "Your Majesty" in the first place.  He thinks Conrad is simply clinging to proper formalities, or perhaps he thinks Conrad is teasing.  He doesn't understand that Conrad is deadly, desperately serious.  He doesn't understand that it's how Conrad reminds himself of his place, of both their places.

He doesn't understand that if Conrad allows himself to call Yuuri by name, he'll only want more, and more, and _more_.

Yuuri doesn't know any of this.  Yuuri just stands there and glares at him, pure and honest in ways Conrad perhaps has never been, and there is no resisting that.  "Yuuri," Conrad corrects himself, helpless.  And he can't help it; whatever Yuuri wants, Conrad will give him.

He only wishes Yuuri wanted more.

**Author's Note:**

> (Inspired by the prompt: 100 words of secret crushes)


End file.
